Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I wandered over to 42opus recently (yes, I admit it--I went to log in and check on the status of three poems I submitted in December) and found Jack London's "To Build a Fire" posted there. I hadn't read that story for several years, and I have to say that reading it in the midst of a cold snap here helps restore perspective (I won't be complaining about the weather anytime soon). ==========Lucette Lagnado has won the $100,000 2008 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. I've been meaning to read her prizewinning memoir, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. Now I know I have to.==========Lagnado likely won't feel the pinch of the latest news from the United States Postal Service. That's right, folks: We've got another postal rate increase to look forward to! (Wasn't it just the other day that the cost of a first-class stamp went up to $.41?) Stock up on those "Forever" stamps while you can. The new rates take effect on May 12.

About Me

Erika Dreifus lives and writes in New York City. Her story collection, Quiet Americans, will be published in January 2011 by Last Light Studio Books. Erika is a contributing editor for The Writer magazine and an advisory board member forJ Journal: New Writing on Justice, and she wrote the section on "Choosing a Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing" for the second edition of Tom Kealey's Creative Writing MFA Handbook (Continuum, 2008). Erika's writing practice encompasses fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. For more about Erika's writing, please visit her website.

Erika is also the editor/publisher of The Practicing Writer, a free (and popular) e-newsletter featuring advice, opportunities, and resources on the craft and business of writing for fictionists, poets, and writers of creative nonfiction.